AVR controlled Rubik’s cube solver

[Andrius] just sent in his robot Rubik’s cube solver. It isn’t as fast as the solver we saw last year but it also doesn’t require as many parts either. This project utilizes two claws, each actuated by just two servo motors. The thinking is done by a PC which calculates the necessary moves to solve the cube. Each instruction is then passed via USB to the AVR ATmega16 microcontroller that is responsible for the servo operation.

Right now it looks like the colors for each starting face have to be entered manually before a solution is calculated. We think [Andrius] is probably planning to upgrade this with the next generation of his software as he already has a webcam setup for this type of analysis.

Sure, humans can solve it faster. But this is pretty well done. I like the claw style, and the simplicity of movements. Could add a camera with color detection to avoid the “setup” step, but regardless, that’s pretty sweet.

Now, can it do a Square 1 puzzle? That’s the one that seems to require a fully automated solver to me.

Great project, I just wonder about the method of cube solving. Layer by layer might be the easiest to understand for a human solving a cube, but since a computer is being doing the thinking, why not use a more efficient algorithm?

@Winphreak not really sure what you mean with the Square 1 puzzle. I figured out how to solve it and did my first in about an hour. its much more simple to solve than a standard rubiks. a machine wouldnt need to be too different to solve, all it would need to do is be able to grab two or three corners. the rest would be a decent algorithm. and on that note –

It looks like this robot is solving the cube “as a human” which means it follows algorithms instead of calculating the fastest method
even worse, it’s using LBL, so to speed this bot up you just have to improve the method, hardware changes are not necessary